Early and Ultraearly Administration of Tranexamic Acid in Traumatic Brain Injury: Our 8-Year-Long Clinical Experience

Nurdan Acar, Mustafa Emin Canakci, Ugur Bilge

Emerg Med Int. 2020 Sep 18;2020:6593172

Introduction: The most important result of head trauma, which can develop with a blunt or penetrating mechanism, is traumatic brain injury. Tranexamic acid (TXA) can be used safely in multiple trauma. Recent studies showed that TXA can be useful in management of intracerebral hemorrhage, especially in reducing the amount of bleeding. The TXA given in the first 3 hours has been shown to reduce mortality. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of tranexamic acid used in patients with traumatic brain injury.

Method: Patients with trauma in the emergency room between January 2012 and January 2020 were screened in this retrospective study. The inclusion criteria were being over the age of 18 years, tranexamic acid administration in the emergency department, and traumatic brain injury on brain computerized tomography (CT) and control CT imaging after 6 hours.

Results: The number of study patients was 51. The median score of GCS was 12.00 (8.00-15.00). Subdural hemorrhage and subarachnoid hemorrhage were the most common findings on brain CT scans. In the group TXA treatment for less than 1 hour, the arrival MAP was low and the pulse was high (p=0.022 and p=0.030, respectively). All the patients were admitted with multiple trauma. None of the 51 patients had thrombotic complications and died due to head injury.

Conclusion: TXA appears to be a safe drug with few side effects in the short term in head injuries. According to our experience, it comes to mind earlier in multiple trauma, especially in head trauma with pelvic trauma.